Al-Quida influence encourages violence and terror in regionThe rise of Boko Haram stirred fears not only in Maiduguri, but also in foreign embassies.A secret diplomatic cable rounding up potential global threats was sent in June 2009 on behalf of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a copy recently released by WikiLeaks. The cable named Yusuf and identified his group as the "Nigerian Taliban." It warned that the group planned to launch a "massive surprise attack ... aimed at sparking sectarian clashes across Nigeria." The warning came a month before Boko Haram began its riot.Diplomats also fear that Boko Haram may link with other foreign terror groups. After the 2009 violence, an arrested Boko Haram suspect told journalists he had been sent to Afghanistan to study bomb-making. His claim could not be independently verified.In October, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the north Africa branch of the terror group, apparently transmitted a Boko Haram message through an Internet forum on behalf of a Yusuf deputy now believed to be running the sect. In the June 2009 cable, the State Department also said a "well-trained veteran Chadian extremist" with "limited ties to al Qaida" had recently traveled to Nigeria. The cable said the man possibly came to raise money for a terror attack, but had no other information.It remains unclear what, if any, formal links al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has made with Boko Haram. The two groups belong to different ethnic groups with different customs. However, the al-Qaida group has paid local tribes in the past to take control of foreign hostages, and fighters linked to it have executed foreigners before.___Locals join 'religious community' out of necessity History shows Maiduguri sits apart from the rest of the country. Though now a bookend of Nigeria's Muslim north, the region belonged to an ancient empire that stretched east rather than into the western Hausa lands. It remains insular even today.Boko Haram took advantage of that, as well as the region's endemic poverty. The group's members likely come from the teeming poor in Nigeria and surrounding countries, said Murray Last, a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University College of London who studies Nigeria's north."What else would you actually do if you haven't got an education, if you haven't got a job, if you haven't got any future of a wife or a family?" Last asked. "Wouldn't it be better to join a religious community that might ensure you of a wife and children and sort of an education? ... A lot of young men have got no real option at all."Many such young men flooded into northern Nigerian cities during the country's oil boom in the 1970s, hoping for jobs. Those coming from villages instead found hardship and alienation that made them receptive to any promise of change in their lives, Last said.That brought the north's first modern brush with Islamic extremism. Nigeria's north is dominated by Muslims, while its south is dominated by Christians.In 1980, the radical Maitatsine movement took hold in the ancient northern city of Kano. Led by a Cameroonian immigrant who inserted his own name into the Quran in place of the prophet Mohammed, the sect decried a corrupt federal government made up of "infidels." Riots left 4,000 people dead.The military finally put down the sect after years of violence, but many still identified with the group."An awful lot of men and women sympathize with them," Last said. "One is dealing with an unspoken sense of: 'These people are thinking and doing things which may be wrong, but they aren't that far wrong.'"Much remains murky about Boko Haram's intentions, and whether all the killings in Maiduguri are due to the group's re-emergence. Local officials killed recently often had no previous ties with the group."They all can't be insurgent activity," said Abdullahi, the police spokesman.Kaka Abubakar, a local government official, said he fought off gunmen barehanded whom authorities identified as Boko Haram members. However, when interviewed in front of his home guarded by three soldiers, he said he had no idea who his assailants were or what they wanted.He walked quickly away down a quiet alley near his home, all of his neighbors watching. As an Associated Press reporter pulled out a notebook, a lance corporal guarding Abubakar's house shouted at him not to take notes."Please do not write anything down. Please do not ask questions," the soldier said. "These are innocent people."
Radical Muslim sect again stalks northern Nigeria
'Nigerian Taliban' wages war against government as it assassinates police, local leaders and engineers a massive prison break.
Al-Quida influence encourages violence and terror in regionThe rise of Boko Haram stirred fears not only in Maiduguri, but also in foreign embassies.A secret diplomatic cable rounding up potential global threats was sent in June 2009 on behalf of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a copy recently released by WikiLeaks. The cable named Yusuf and identified his group as the "Nigerian Taliban." It warned that the group planned to launch a "massive surprise attack ... aimed at sparking sectarian clashes across Nigeria." The warning came a month before Boko Haram began its riot.Diplomats also fear that Boko Haram may link with other foreign terror groups. After the 2009 violence, an arrested Boko Haram suspect told journalists he had been sent to Afghanistan to study bomb-making. His claim could not be independently verified.In October, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the north Africa branch of the terror group, apparently transmitted a Boko Haram message through an Internet forum on behalf of a Yusuf deputy now believed to be running the sect. In the June 2009 cable, the State Department also said a "well-trained veteran Chadian extremist" with "limited ties to al Qaida" had recently traveled to Nigeria. The cable said the man possibly came to raise money for a terror attack, but had no other information.It remains unclear what, if any, formal links al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has made with Boko Haram. The two groups belong to different ethnic groups with different customs. However, the al-Qaida group has paid local tribes in the past to take control of foreign hostages, and fighters linked to it have executed foreigners before.___Locals join 'religious community' out of necessity History shows Maiduguri sits apart from the rest of the country. Though now a bookend of Nigeria's Muslim north, the region belonged to an ancient empire that stretched east rather than into the western Hausa lands. It remains insular even today.Boko Haram took advantage of that, as well as the region's endemic poverty. The group's members likely come from the teeming poor in Nigeria and surrounding countries, said Murray Last, a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University College of London who studies Nigeria's north."What else would you actually do if you haven't got an education, if you haven't got a job, if you haven't got any future of a wife or a family?" Last asked. "Wouldn't it be better to join a religious community that might ensure you of a wife and children and sort of an education? ... A lot of young men have got no real option at all."Many such young men flooded into northern Nigerian cities during the country's oil boom in the 1970s, hoping for jobs. Those coming from villages instead found hardship and alienation that made them receptive to any promise of change in their lives, Last said.That brought the north's first modern brush with Islamic extremism. Nigeria's north is dominated by Muslims, while its south is dominated by Christians.In 1980, the radical Maitatsine movement took hold in the ancient northern city of Kano. Led by a Cameroonian immigrant who inserted his own name into the Quran in place of the prophet Mohammed, the sect decried a corrupt federal government made up of "infidels." Riots left 4,000 people dead.The military finally put down the sect after years of violence, but many still identified with the group."An awful lot of men and women sympathize with them," Last said. "One is dealing with an unspoken sense of: 'These people are thinking and doing things which may be wrong, but they aren't that far wrong.'"Much remains murky about Boko Haram's intentions, and whether all the killings in Maiduguri are due to the group's re-emergence. Local officials killed recently often had no previous ties with the group."They all can't be insurgent activity," said Abdullahi, the police spokesman.Kaka Abubakar, a local government official, said he fought off gunmen barehanded whom authorities identified as Boko Haram members. However, when interviewed in front of his home guarded by three soldiers, he said he had no idea who his assailants were or what they wanted.He walked quickly away down a quiet alley near his home, all of his neighbors watching. As an Associated Press reporter pulled out a notebook, a lance corporal guarding Abubakar's house shouted at him not to take notes."Please do not write anything down. Please do not ask questions," the soldier said. "These are innocent people."